JUNE 2010 NEWSLETTER

PRESIDENT/BUSINESS AGENT                      MIKE MAHAR

The Collective Agreement between the City of Calgary and the Amalgamated Transit Union has been printed and is now available.  If you have not received a copy through your Steward they will be available at the garages during the sign-up.  Although the Steward’s will continue to make them available in the Office and Maintenance areas, all members are welcome to pick one up at the Sign-Up room in late July, early August.  You can also go to our Webpage at www.atu583.com and view it there.

We continue to struggle with negotiations with Calgary HandiBus.  As predicted, we have not been able to resolve our issues around “breaks” and “schedules”.  As previously stated, the problem is not as much Calgary HandiBus as it is their lack of being able to direct Access Calgary to act responsibly.  We have discussed everything on the table now with the exception of wages and term of agreement.  At our last negotiations meeting we asked HandiBus to provide a package, which includes their position on everything outstanding.  They have agreed to do that and we are looking to set a date in the near future.  We are not optimistic because of course, Calgary Transit is the cheque writer and Transit won’t come to the table.
    
Through the Alberta Federation of Labour, the Labour Coalition on Pensions continues to address the Government on the concerns we’ve had with the Local Authority Pension Plan.  Some of the concerns date back to the late 1990’s and some are emerging issues.  In part they include representation, governance and of course pension benefits.  

Most members will be aware of the current situation with our temporary foreign workers (the Brits) due to the extensive media coverage they received as a result of an inquiry at City Council.  It looks like most of them would prefer to move to Winnipeg Transit, given that anything that would have made it possible for them  to stay here, has all but fallen apart and made it impossible.  They have sacrificed so much to come over here and for most, returning to the UK is not much of an option.  If they are hired by Winnipeg Transit and make the six month probation, they can apply to stay in Canada under the Provincial Nominee Program in Manitoba.  These have been highly successful, skilled employees and Calgary’s loss is Winnipeg’s gain.
    
One of the most important events for our members and their families is happening this October and there will be changes like we have never experienced before.  Of course I’m referring to the Municipal elections.  The outcome of these elections will affect future negotiations and your job security for years to come.  The Civic Labour Coalition has been working on strategies to identify candidates whose platforms support our workforce and working families in general.  We will be providing this information through future  newsletters and bulletins and also a special webpage.  
    
We would like to WELCOME BACK our LRV SERVICE LANE ATTENDANT that was fired last year when the LRV Service Lane foreman was firing everyone left and right just prior to his or her permanency.  This employee had the right to go to arbitration and as a result we were able to negotiate a settlement with Management.  The employee is back on the job and the other details around pay and benefits will be dealt with over the coming weeks.
    
Please have a safe summer.

    
EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT/ OPERATIONS                 DOUG JOHANNES

You may or may not know but Ron Heintzman has been voted in to the position of the International President.  He was the International Executive Vice-President and with the retirement of Warren George he is now in the office of President.  Ron is a well educated, dynamic man and will lead this Union well in these difficult times.  He is well known for his expertise in negotiating and organizing.
    
With Ron’s new position, it left the Executive Vice-President’s position vacant and Randy Graham from Ottawa has been moved into that position by the Executive Board.  The Amalgamated Transit Union has been around for 117 years and this is the first time that a Canadian has held a top position.  I feel that it is a great accomplishment for all of us in Canada.  There has been talk about us being the poor sister and not getting any recognition.  This in my mind is a good thing for all of us in this country and our Sister country.  I look forward to bigger and better things in the future.
    
Just a quick reminder to insure that you renew your driver’s license before your birthday.  If you forget, your Employer will impose discipline ranging from two weeks if you drive and have forgotten to renew your license, to one month if you drive knowingly without a driver’s license and dismissal if you knowingly drive for a long period of time.  This is a condition of employment and is the employee’s responsibility to insure that it is renewed on time.  There have been many employees disciplined over the last few years, I find this to be unfair as the employer checks your drivers abstract on the day after your birthday.  If they checked the day before, they could notify the Operator and ensure that no one was behind the wheel that should not be.  In fact, in their rule, if you do not give them permission to pull your drivers abstract they will ask you for your license the day before your birthday.  It would not be a hardship for them to do this for all Operators.  I have included a copy of the rule.

I wonder how it is that Management can insure you have a license if you don’t submit permission for them to pull an abstract, but not if they have an authorization on file.
    
We were recently at two conferences this Spring, the Canadian Council was held in Moncton, NB, the conference was very informative.  We heard from Transit personnel from that region and saw some of the hardships they are facing in the East.  We also had a presentation from the company that the Council has hired to lobby the Canadian Government to make it a federal offense to assault a Transit Operator.  They are making good progress and feel that most of the Members of Parliament are in favor, however, it may take some time to get to the floor of the house. During the conference the attack on the Operator from Edmonton was discussed and over $11,000.00 was raised to help out this person.  The host Local did a great job of insuring that the conference was successful.

The Northwest was the following week in Portland, Oregon.  We were fortunate enough to have a couple of lawyers talk to us, Cynthia Watson, from Watson Labour Group out of Ontario and Susan Stoner, in house counsel for Local 757.  The information we received was excellent.

We also had a presentation from  King County Sheriff Department’s Transit police Major Jutilla on transit assaults. The response that his department is taking is to ensure that people who assault Operators are punished to the full  extent of the law.  In Washington State it is a Federal offense to assault a Transit Operator.

FINANCIAL SECRETARY-TREASURER                               RICK RATCLIFF    
       
I have a feel good story for a change! “Good On” the Vic Park service lane members for stepping up to help out one of their colleagues in need.  One of the crew was dealing with a serious family situation and the balance of the members and their foreman managed to get him some much needed time off.  A BIG THANK YOU to those involved.
    
There seems to be a large number of conflict situations arising lately.  ATU Local 583 will help mediate conflicts between members, Management and others, when brought to our attention.  Please be reasonable with your co-workers and take a minute to try and respect each person’s point of view.  We all have many similarities in our day to day work practices. That is, many of us do comparable jobs but we may add our individual touch to the job, to make the task more personal.  If a situation arises where you would like ATU to intervene, please have accurate details.  It is sometimes surprising to hear what can set off a situation and how respect isn’t always a two way street.  So ask for the name or ID of the person you are dealing with.  Time, date, location are other good details to have.
    
 This is a nice lead in to documentation.  When a member is requested to submit documentation for any reason, keep a copy of it.  The form might be JEQ/PAQ, medical, incident, police, application, transfer, bid, or other.  Some sort of copy makes the situation easier to deal with if it comes back at you.  And it may, some of the simplest situations get misinterpreted, too many incident reports and job applications go missing, so it is good to have a copy of your evidence available.       City policy deems incident reports as “legal” documents, so dispatch is obliged not to make copies.  Use common sense and discretion to get a duplicate of your report.  If the duplicate can’t be created on a computer, photo copiers can still be found.  I know of a very good one!  
    
A couple of further notes on reports:
•    JEQ’s should be signed by a Supervisor and a copy returned to you.  
•    Police reports are the property of the person involved in the situation
•    Incident reports are to be filled out within 24 business hours, so don’t rush it.
    
The Social Committee is looking forward to seeing our members and their families at the Family Picnic on Sunday, July 25th.  It promises to be a great day including food and traditional ATU events such as boat rides, foot races, tug-o-war and the two scrambles, gum and bike.  Categories for the bike scramble are: (wagon) infant, 1-3, 4-6, 7-10, 11-14 in both genders.  The scramble is for signed up members’ children only.  For further information check the work site posting or call the office.  Hope to see everyone there!

RECORDING SECRETARY – MAINTENANCE/OFFICE REPRESENTATIVE                     WALTER MOODIE
 
I would like to thank the membership for sending me to both the Canadian Council Conference and the Northwest Conference.  Both conferences were very educational, informative and the networking with other Local Union Officers is always priceless.
    
I’m pleased to state that your Canadian Council is working very hard for you on many directives and goals set forward by your delegates in the last few years.      The delegates at the Canadian Council discussed the Operator in Edmonton who was violently attacked over a fare dispute.  This graphic attack can be viewed on U Tube and the Canadian Council Website link.  I must warn you, this is very graphic and should not be seen by the faint of heart.  It is appalling to see something like this going on in our society today.  Changes toward safe guarding our Operator’s and any Transit member that is attacked by the public in their line of duty needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.
    
I hope all ATU 583 members have signed the petitions to support this crucial amendment to the criminal code.
    
With the upcoming International Convention in September, politics were very much in the forefront at both these Conferences.  This convention will possibly see changes in our International Vice Presidents.  Political lines have been drawn and I’m sure it will make for quite an interesting convention.
    
Changes in Management philosophy and how day to day business is operated is happening here in Calgary.  Fleet Services is going through another Management change and it sure is causing concerns from members in this work area. CUPE 37 and ATU are making sure that our Collective Agreements are being followed and that Management understands that we will not be hoodwinked by some of these new Management philosophies.
    
Victoria Park Call Center members are very concerned with the new proposed sign up that has been posted.  Members and full time Officers have spent numerous hours scrutinizing the new sign up.  Senior Full Time and Permanent Part Time members could be impacted directly with the way the sign up was proposed.  Rick Ratcliff has spent numerous hours identifying the proposed changes that are wanted up in the Call Center.  Rick worked for years in the Operations Sign Up and brings years of expertise in Sign Up procedures.  Thanks Rick for all your help and support.
Changes in Management at Calgary Transit have already started with Mr. Hubbell retiring and also numerous other Management personnel either retiring or having their jobs deleted and requested to move to other work areas within the City of Calgary.  Concerns are always raised by members when a new Foreman or Supervisor comes along.  We can only do our jobs as efficiently as we have been doing and if there are any concerns please call the office for direction.  Work now and grieve later is well entrenched in our bargaining unit and stated by Human Resources to us over and over again.
    
I have only touched on some of the issues your Full Time Officers are addressing.  Yes it looks like a busy summer ahead but we will work hard for you.  I want to wish everyone a good, safe summer and holiday, if you get one and we will see you in September.  Stand up and be proud you are UNION.

 DID YOU KNOW…

          ATU LOCAL 583 ANNUAL FAMILY PICNIC

When:   July 25, 2010

Where:  Bowness Park (East Pavilion)

Time:    10:00 a.m. – 2:15 p.m.
           
Agenda:

10:45 –  Canoe & paddle boat rides

11:30 –  Foot races, sack races, tug-o- war

13:00 –  Gum Scramble

13:15 -  Presentation of baby cup (to  youngest  baby of member in attendance) and cake (to oldest member in attendance)   
 
13:30 – 24th Annual bike scramble

Hot Dogs, Ice Cream, Pop, Coffee, Tea and Water are available

      **Volunteers are always welcome**

FOR YOUR INFORMATION…..   

THANK YOU CARDS RECEIVED

Ashley Easthope              Walter Moodie                     Warren Evans                      Glenda Morrison

Neil Kennedy                   Family of Ed Scherger          Family of Ron Layne             Mark Smeaton

Susan Anne Lewin            Ed Trembley                       Jim McConnell                      Karin Venables


RETIREES CORNER

Just a Reminder:  The July and August meetings and luncheons will be suspended.


CONGRATULATIONS On Their Retirement

William Snell          –  Operator           –  June 2010
Gurnam Thinda       –  Operator           –  June 2010
Alfred Noble            –  Operator           –  June 2010
Darcy Turcotte        –  Operator           –  June 2010
Ken Craig               –  Maintenance     –  July 2010
Allan Leslie            –  Operator           –  August 2010
William Devlin        –  Operator           –  August 2010


ATU Support Group

Another year has come and gone but the ATU Support Group is still here.  You may ask who are they?  We are a dedicated group of people made up of ATU members that are retired or active and their spouses and other interested associates.  Your next question might be what do they do?  We raise money throughout the year to help ATU members that find themselves in financial difficulty caused by a variety of factors.  We help pay essential bills and food.
    
We are limited to how we can raise money.  We have raffles at various ATU events, a generous retiree, Buster Schweiger donates wooden crafts that we sell and receive half the profit, the other half goes to the cancer foundation and our cash donations that keep us afloat.  We would like to thank the many individuals and organizations such as our Union, ATU Local 583, the Retirees Group and HandiBus.
    
We also sell books at the garages for .50 each.  Thank you to those that buy and pay for the books.  If people are not going to pay for the books we are going to pull the book shelves. To the person that broke into the Spring Garden’s book money, if you are that much in need of a few dollars, give me a call, I’ll pay you out of my own pocket just so you are not taking away from a member who really needs it.  
    
This year so far has been a tough year on many people.  We are receiving more calls than usual.  We will try to help all we can but we have limited cash supply.
    
Last year we raised in total, $4,700.00, we spent $2,777.00 for essential bills and groceries and $1,300.00 on Christmas food hampers.  What’s left over will help pay for more bills and groceries throughout the year.
    
We thank everyone for their support.  We are always looking for new members.  Any donations are greatly appreciated.  Give me a call, Colleen Holden @ 403-948-8758.  Thank you.
          

UPCOMING  MEETINGS

Please note:  All meetings will be suspended for the months of July and August 2010.  They will resume at the regular scheduled times in September.